Rules
This campaign is not designed for min/max characters. It's a story with characters and challenges where appropriate to the story. Your biggest challenges will be to discover each others strengths and weaknesses and to avoid making bad decisions. The race, class, abilities, skills, feats, spells or any other requirements for a player character is limited to the players handbook. No exceptions. Magic items Magic items may be requested, but please don't expect to receive a specific set of items because "that's what my char wants", your char doesn't know what items of power are available in the world because they are level 1, if they were level 20 they would probably know most of the items of power in the world or have been exposed to a great number of them and therefore they would be able to commission them. It is a fantasy world, items will be available, but they will become available as the party progress through the campaign. Pre-building your character with a predetermined set of items will lead to disappointment, rather focus on role playing aspects of your character than the items they need to get. Stat rolls will use the following rules * Roll 4d6 * Drop lowest number on dice * Total remaining three dices * Repeat for each stat * At the end total all your stats together * Totals between 72-79 are accepted Player Story Arcs Please note that there are six players in this campaign. Players need to provide a back story with enough details to allow the DM to create a story arc for them. Knowing your story arc before it happens will spoil the fun for you. Story arcs will be in effect constantly throughout the campaign and will not focus on one specific players story until it has been completed. Arcs will move in and out of the campaign story as the players interact/progress through the world. Quests/Encounters Much like real life, there will be scenarios which are within your characters capabilities and scenarios which are for the time being outside your characters capabilities. The DM will not tell you this directly, but will instead hint towards it, or attempt to steer you away from encounters which are to dangerous for your characters at this point in time. Not all quests will remain available either as your party is not the only party capable of clearing the town sewers of Orlon. There are many adventurers in the world and sometimes failing to complete or delaying an accepted quest will result in another group of adventurers completing the task before you get there. This will not happen to every quest you accept, but must be kept in mind when accepting a quest from a NPC. Player Deaths Player deaths are a real thing in this world. If the party chooses to take on a challenge they are not geared/prepared for then one or more player characters will die. Payed for resurrection is only available in the major cities, on Veldras, this means you can only be resurrected in Orlon. Please note that player regard/esteem/influence will be taken into account when setting a price for the resurrection. If the player is unknown to the NPC's performing the resurrection then convincing will be required by the other party members. Player characters can only be revived once, a second death will be permanent unless the DM is using it as part of a story arc/plot line. The party will be expected to actively attempt to resurrect fallen party members, with the exception of party members who wish to re'roll. Party members who die for plot/arc reasons will be notified by the DM and are expected to keep it a secret, wishing to continue playing their characters instead of re-rolling. Players who have the ability to resurrect other players will only be allowed to do it once. Please read what your resurrection ability is capable of, as this will effect with the outcome of it's use. Attempting to resurrect and failing will result in an added DC to the next attempt and so on. It's like trying to cook the perfect steak, you either get it right or you completely stuffed it up, the DC allows you to have made it rare when the customer asked for it at medium rare, this means you can still fix it, but if you fail the DC then you made it well done and it's time for a new steak. Party Your party, is your party! You must be willing to work with your party. Actions you take must consider the party at all times. Consider you party as part of what keeps you character alive. If you for some reason end up leaving the party and heading off to do your own thing due to your character feeling the party does not have his interests in mind, you will need to roll another character who loves the party and wants to join them. Don't make things awkward because you are arguing about something out of game. Please don't take your out of game arguments into the game and likewise do not take your in game arguments out of game. Unless a party member has done something which causes another party member to distrust that party member, you are expected to want to help each other. Please find legitimate reasons to distrust a party member. The DM cannot stop you from distrusting a party member but it needs to be for a valid reason at the minimum where possible. "Because he knocked my drink over, after he paid for it!" doesn't count if your intelligence score is higher than 6. Critical fails/successes Critical fails and successes only apply to attack rolls. For anything else your total score with modifiers apply. If you rolled for a perception check with a DC 10, and you happen roll a natural one, but you have expertise in perception giving you a mod of +9, then your total still passes the DC of 10. Rolling a natural 20 with a mod of +4 also doesn't beat a check with a DC of 25. The rule applied to natural 20's on attack rolls will be: * Add your attack modifier and your weapons maximum based damage together, this is your starting number. * Now do your normal attack and add the result of your attack to the number calculated as your base Example: * Barbarian with 2 x brutal critical dice, flame tongue greataxe and + 9 (to hit). * Base damage will be 12 (greataxe) + 12 (2d6 flame tongue) + 9 which totals 33 damage. * Example rolls for normal attack: 5 (greataxe) + 7 (2d6 flame tongue) + 9 (to hit) + 18 (2d12 brutal critical) = 39 * Added together this equals 72 points of damage to the target If there are any queries during the game please refer them to the DM for discussion. Inspiration Every character begins each session with Inspiration. If you have Inspiration, you can spend it at any time to take an Inspired Action provided that action somehow ties into one of your character’s personal characteristics. If your Ideal is “I will do anything to save a person in danger,” and you want to swing across a ravine on a vine to rescue someone who is about fall into the ravine and hanging by one hand, that fits. You can claim an Inspired Action. When you take an Inspired Action, you can either gain advantage on an ability check, attack roll, or saving throw OR you can give advantage to someone else’s ability check, attack roll, or saving throw provided you are in a position to assist them directly in some way OR impose disadvantage on someone else’s ability check, attack roll, or saving throw provided you are in a position to hinder their action directly in some way. Whatever it is, the Inspired Action MUST somehow connect to one of your Personal Characteristics. So, let’s take that “I will take any risk to save a person in danger.” You could do the aforementioned “swinging across the ravine to catch them from falling” thing. Or if they have to attempt a saving throw to avoid a collapsing ceiling, you could throw yourself at them to save them, giving them advantage on the saving throw. Or if a monster is about to attack someone standing near you, you can interpose yourself and give the monster disadvantage on the attack roll. Earning Additional Inspiration. When you don’t have Inspiration, you can Claim a Setback to gain Inspiration. To Claim a Setback you must either impose disadvantage on one of your own ability checks, saving throws, or attack rolls based on one of your Personal Characteristics OR make a decision that creates a significant story setback, obstacle, or hindrance. When you want to Claim a Setback, simply ask the DM. For example: “I’m easily distracted by shiny objects, so I’m distracted by the giant pile of treasure. Can I Claim a Setback and take disadvantage on my saving throw against the dragon’s fire breath?” Or: “This guy wants to help us, but I distrust all strangers. I’m going to be rude and accusatory of him. Can I Claim a Setback for that?” General rules * The DM is not perfect and will make mistakes. * The DM does not know every single rule/skill/item/ability/feat in D&D. Please don't expect him to as it is not possible. * Players will be expected to know their characters and abilities. ** If you describe to the DM what you are casting, provide the details, what saving throw/skill check is required and what the DC is for it. ** Along with this, please don't say "I cast fireball", describe your action instead. For example: I see a group of enemies all clustered together, I gesture with my hands and you see a small lick of fire shoot from my hand." If the DM is unsure of what you described, he will ask you for the details of what you cast. ** The same goes for everything else in the game, describe to everyone what you are doing instead of telling everyone what you are doing. * Know what your abilities do, bending what a ability can/cannot do is always possible but is depends on the scenario. * The DM is not another DM. Saying "Matt does it like this" doesn't mean the DM will now need to rule/do it the same way. * If there's a argument about something, The DM will make a ruling to keep the game moving. This ruling is final and being "pissed off" that it is incorrect will only spoil it for yourself. Everyone makes and is allowed to make mistakes. No one at the table is a god. ** After the session, the DM will do research to determine if his ruling was correct or incorrect. ** Incorrect rulings will receive an apology, but the ruling at that point in time stays as is and will not be changed. Going forward the correct method will be applied. * Your opinion is your opinion, this isn't a political game. Try not to force your opinion onto others during the session. If the person leveled up and did not pick the things you would have picked, please don't try to convince them to do it. If someone decides to do something stupid, don't try to change their mind out of character. It is their character, they can do what they want to do and your opinion has no place in that decision. This applies to anyone who feels they are being forced to change their decision. It's your decision, make it the way you want to.